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powerful are incompatible, because the inference is unavoidable, that the one must will necessarily whatever the other wills; and, in that case, of these two, the one whose will is necessarily determined by the will of the other is not free, and therefore has not that perfection, because it is better to be free than to be subjected to what is determined by the will of another. If, however, they are not both reduced to the necessity of always willing the same thing, then the one may will to do what the other would wish not to have done, in which case the will of the one would prevail over the will of the other; and thus, of these two, the one whose power is insufficient to support his will is not all powerful, for he cannot effect as much as the other. Thus one of the two is not all powerful. There are not then, nor can there be, two all powerful beings, nor consequently two Gods.

'By the same idea of perfection we arrive at the knowledge that God is Omniscient. But on the supposition of two distinct beings, having a distinct power and will, it is an imperfection that one cannot conceal his thoughts from the other; while, if one of the two conceal his thoughts from the other, that other is not omniscient, not merely because he knows not all which can possibly be known, but because he is even ignorant of that which is known to another.

The same may be said of the Omnipresence of God. It were better that he should pervade the whole extent of infinite space, than be excluded from some part of it; for, should he be excluded from some place, he cannot act there, nor know what is transacted there, and consequently he would be neither omnipotent nor omniscient.

'If, to invalidate these arguments of mine, it be alleged that the two Gods supposed, or the two hundred thousand, (for by the same mode of argument by which you may have two, you may have two millions, as there is then no limit to the number) if, I say, it be objected, that several Gods may have a perfect omnipotence, which is exactly the same, that they may also have the same knowledge and the same will, and may exist equally in the same place, this is only to multiply the same being, or rather, it is in reality only to reduce a pretended plurality to a simple unity; for to describe two intelligent beings who know, will, and do incessantly the same thing, and

who have no separate existence, is to describe in words a plurality, but really to establish a simple unity. For to be inseparably united in design, will, action, and place, is to be as closely united as an intelligent being can be united to himself; and, consequently, to suppose that where there is such a union, there may be two beings, is to suppose a distinction without a difference, and something divided from itself.'

Religion of the Wahabees.

[The Wahabees are a sect of Mohammedans, which has sprung up in recent times, and made great progress in Arabia. The following extract is from a letter written by the celebrated traveller, Burckhardt, at Cairo, in the year 1812, and lately published in the Atlantick Magazine, at New York. The letter was directed to Sir Joseph Banks, and was found on board a vessel taken by one of our privateers in 1813. The letter, and the notes accompanying it, are curious; and the only regret that can be felt by the American reader is, that documents of such a character should not have been transmitted immediately to their proper destination. The sanctuary of science and knowledge should be sacred even against the intrusions of war.

It will be seen by the extract that these Wahabees are a kind of reformers of the Mohammedan faith. They begin to reason, and discuss, and to ask the grounds of their belief. It will be seen,

moreover, that such bold innovations have been met much in the same way, as the same propensities among Christians have been met by their brethren. The adherents to the old faith resist inquiry, endeavour to suppress controversy. By these wholesome restrictions, and circulating exaggerated accounts of the heresy of the rising party, they hope to stop the current of reformation, and save themselves the trouble of answering questions or of giving a

reason.

The people, of whom Burckhardt is here speaking, are called Bedouin Arabs, and inhabit the country east and south of Palestine, and particularly those regions where the Israelites sojourned forty years in their wanderings from Egypt to the Holy Land.]

'Abd el Aryz father of Ibn el Saoud, the present chief of the Wahabees, had sent summonses all over the Mohammedan world, to engage the people to join his creed. Some of his missionaries were arrested by the Shah of Persia, while others penetrated to the shores of the Atlantick. The Moggribeen Olemas entered into discussion with him, which gave

The

origin to several written dissertations of both sides. principal points in dispute are; 1st. The Wahabees' denial of Mohammed's still living invisibly among the followers of his faith; 2d, of his being able to intercede at the Almighty's throne, in favour of the departed souls of the faithful; 3d, their irreverence for the saints in general, and for their influence in heaven, which they demonstrate by demolishing all the chapels constructed in honour of them; 4th, their like sentiments with regard to the companions and followers of Mohammed; 5th, their severity of discipline; 6th, their refusing any authority to tradition, or Hadyth, as related of the companions of Mohammed. The champions of the established Turkish faith answer, and pretend that Mohammed is still alive; that he hears the prayers addressed to him by the faithful, and grants them as much as is in his power, partly by the faculties he himself possesses of working miracles, and partly by his applications to the Deity. The saints, indeed, they say, were but mortals, and no more; but their virtues have entitled them to the favour of the Almighty, which they are at liberty to invoke, and often to obtain for those earthly inhabitants and faithful Mouslims, who devoutly pray at their tombs. The same is the case with the companions of Mohammed, for which it is the duty of all the faithful to pray; therefore the Turks seldom mention the name of the prophet, without adding prayers for his family, and his companions; but the Wahabees only pray, in that case, for his family. The only tradition which the Wahabees admit, is that which contains the sentiments of the prophet himself, and his own explanation of the difficult passages of the Koran, as related by his companions. But they resist all tradition of later times; even that which can be traced to the companions of Mohammed, as soon as they relate to their own opinions on religious matters, or to the opinions of the prophet himself, as reported by people who are not comprised within the class of "the companions." As to discipline, I have already mentioned several points, in which they (the Wahabees) disagree with the established religion. I only add, that all the Wahabees are enjoined to shave their head completely, without having any hair lock on the top of it, as is generally done by the Turks; or else to leave the whole head of hair growing.

The Hadyth says, "shave all, or leave all." In general, the precepts of the Sunné, which, although not given in the Koran, are yet strongly insisted upon by the prophet, and enforced by his own example, are more in vigour among the Wahabees than the Turks, who evidently transgress the most conspicuous of these tenets. Thus, for instance, it is a precept of the Sunné, contained in the Hadyth," gold and silver is only permitted to your women; it is unlawful for men." The loud cries over the dead corpse are positively forbidden by Mohammed

'It will be seen that those tenets show a spirit of reform much to the credit of the founders of this religion. Religious dissertations, however, are entirely banished from the conversations of the Turks; and it is, therefore, rendered impossible that the Wahabees should get any partizans, in countries which they have not yet conquered; where the defenders of the old faith circulate the most absurd stories of the principles of the new sect; and where every word, contrary to the established doctrine, is looked upon as heresy, and punished as such. The tax gatherers of the Wahabees, are called Mezekas, or Nowab.

'In reading over the seven or eight thousand principal Hadyth, acknowledged as such by all the learned Mussulmans, and comparing them with the present manners of the Turks, innumerable instances are met with, of a total neglect of these precepts. The acquaintance with the Hadyth is, in my opinion, absolutely necessary, to get a clear insight into the spirit of the Turkish religion, which the reading of the Koran alone does not give. Moral precepts are much more enlarged upon in the Hadyth, than they are in the Koran itself; and, as it is generally Mohammed, the Arab, who speaks, his views and his mind, together with the customs of his times, may be better estimated, as it were, in his familiar conversation, than in the laboured language of the Koran.'

Encampments of the Bedouin Arabs.

[The following extract affords an illustration of the text,' Two women shall be grinding at a mill; the one shall be taken and the other left." Matt. xxiv, 41. These inhabitants of the desert have preserved till the present day the same mode of grinding corn,

which prevailed in the time of our Saviour; and, as in that period, the work seems yet to be exclusively performed by women. The mill here described by Burckhardt is also doubtless of the same construction as that mentioned in Numb. xi, 8, with which the Israelites ground the manna, which they collected in the desert.]

"The handmill or Rahha, is a very heavy machine. It consists in two flat unpolished stones, of a circular shape, about fifteen inches diameter. They are placed upon each other; the upper one is turned round by a wooden handle, and the corn, which is poured into a hole in the upper stone, falls upon the surface of the lower, whereupon the other turns, and thus mills the grain. It may very well be imagined, that the flour thus made is very coarse. I have seen among the Howeytat, handmills made of beautiful granite, which came probably from Egypt, for there is no granite quarry in any part of Syria. The Bedouin women, whose business it is to mill the corn, often do it at night time, when three or four assemble for that purpose, every one with her Rahha. They accompany their hard labour with songs. They recite elegies in praise of the Bedouin life, and declare that the screaking noise of their mills is sweeter to them than the most melodious town musick. The writer has become accustomed to the noise of these mills, disagreeable as it was to him at first. The Arabs pretend that nothing lulls better to sleep than these mills, and the voices that accompany them.'

Apothegms.

He, whose honest freedom makes it his virtue to speak what he thinks, makes it his necessity to think what is good.

It is not so much the difference of opinion, that doth us the mischief, as the mismanagement of that difference.

When we are alone we have our thoughts to watch; in the family our tempers; in company our tongues.

A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.

Many take less care of their conscience, than of their reputation. The religious man fears; the man of honour scorns to do an ill action.

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